8-year-old Santa Cruz girl died in trash can before being placed in recycling dumpster, pathologist says

Adrian ‘A.J’ Gonzalez walks with attorney Larry Biggam in a Santa Cruz Superior Courtroom in July 2015 on suspicion of killing 8-year-old Madyson Middleton a few days before this appearance. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)

SANTA CRUZ – Adrian “A.J.” Gonzalez lowered his head and looked away from a sketch of 8-year-old Madyson Middleton’s injuries sustained when she was raped July 2015 in Santa Cruz.

Madyson was stabbed and forced in a small trash can, in which she suffocated, according to testimony Tuesday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court. She was not bound nor beaten to death.

Shortly after the child’s body was found in a recycling dumpster at the Tannery Arts Center, A.J., 17, made a confession including statements that the attack lasted a half hour.

Madyson’s autopsy results do not contradict A.J.’s statements, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner Stephany Fiore, a forensic pathologist. She testified Tuesday during the sixth week of proceedings.

A.J. is accused of luring Madyson with ice cream, attacking and choking her from behind before attacking her.

Superior Court Judge John Salazar will use information from the juvenile transfer hearing to rule whether A.J. will remain in juvenile custody until he is 23 years old or face up to life in state prison as an adult on charges including first-degree murder.

Madyson died of positional asphyxiation after she was placed in a kitchen trash can. She was breathing when she was raped, according to testimony. The child was dead by the time she was placed in a large bin, a recycling dumpster, in a garage at the Tannery.

Sexual Assault Response Team Coordinator Sheree Goldman, who also testified Tuesday, was part of a team that examined Madyson’s body in July 2015. Goldman cried when she recalled the examination.

“When I approached her (body), I spoke to her. I said I was sorry this happened to her,” Goldman said. “She was beautiful. She had long, dark eyelashes.”

The 4-foot, roughly 50-pound, child was skinny for her age, Goldman said. The child died after being folded in the kitchen garbage can in a “jack-knife” position, Goldman said under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Rafael Vazquez.

Madyson was not developed, Goldman said as she showed a diagram of the child’s injured reproductive organs. The injuries include the possibility that the child was on her back when she was raped.